Full Circle
by Todd's Pet
Summary: A Todd story wherein he ponders the nature of relationships between wraith and human - and a woman comes to understand that these relationships can become very complex indeed. Todd whump warning.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note:_

_I have to warn you before you read this that there is Todd whump… sorry! I was watching the most recent Terminator movie and for several days afterward, I dreamed of the torture scene but with Todd instead of the guy in the movie. Eventually I realized Todd wanted me to write this story – I guess he thinks the whump is okay and it's necessary to show up the humans for what they really are. By the way – the poetry extract is from Keats' "Ode To A Nightingale"._

Full Circle

We all live under the same sky

We all will live, we all will die

There is no wrong, there is no right

The circle only has one side

[Side by Travis]

CHAPTER ONE

"Wraith are not all bad, any more than humans are. They are no more evil than you or I; they are simply trying to survive. If we are to prove to them that their humanity is a part of them they should nurture then we must lead the way and help them, not try to exterminate them as if they were cockroaches."

"Pretty sentiments, Aiobhee," Ronon snarls, "but not very practical." He looks at the faces around the camp fire, all eyes turned on him, waiting for the eruption.

But Aiobhee simply shrugs her shoulders and says, "Then we are no better than you say they are," and gets up from the fireside as if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Ronon puts his arm across her path and challenges her angrily. "You have always been one of our best fighters. What has happened to you, Aiobhee? After they killed Ben I would have thought you of all people would agree that the only good wraith is a dead one!"

Her eyes flash momentarily in the firelight. The assembled group waits for the emotional exchange they're more used to between these two. But again her shoulders slump as if all the fight has been knocked out of her, and when she turns her gaze on Ronon her eyes are dull and hard as steel.

"If you killed every wraith in the universe, would it bring my Ben back?"

Ronon can only hold her gaze for scant seconds before her turns away and looks down at his own feet, muttering, "It would at least avenge him."

"And what good would that do?" Aiobhee says softly. She places her hand on Ronon's shoulder and squeezes gently. "How would eradicating all wraith give Ben's life meaning? How would that show them a better way?"

Wearily, she walks off toward the tents, not looking back once.

-oOo-

Several hours later Aiobhee is abruptly wakened by a scream, followed by another, and then a sound that sends a feeling of utter dread skittering down her spine: wraith darts.

Stopping only to haul on her boots, she throws back the flap of her tent and looks out on to a scene of panic and confusion. The camp is under attack by wraith, shimmering blue culling beams dart around from all directions so fast that she cannot see where to run. There is no where to run.

She sees Ronon and his men at the far end of the camp, firing ineffectually at the darts. But although they have no hope of bringing the flying craft down with their small weapons, they are having the effect of keeping them away from that area… then she sees why as her attention is caught by two elders herding three women and several children up through the small rocky pass that leads to the caves in the mountains, where they can hide out, safe from the culling beams.

But then what? Will the wraith simply go away, or will they hunt for them, find them cowering in the caves, helpless to defend themselves? What would the wraith do when they see the group is mostly children?

She steps out of her tent, meaning to head for the group and try to help but, too late, she sees the dart racing straight towards her and knows she has nowhere to go. As the blue beam engulfs her with frightening speed, she prays that her noble sentiments about wraith do not prove to be the famous last words of a foolish idealist.

-oOo-

She wakes up, not in a cocoon or a holding cell, but in a large empty room, albeit clearly a room in a wraith hive. Almost the instant she rouses, three women come bustling into the room with towels and elaborately tooled glass bottles. They head straight for a large crater-type structure in the middle of the room, and one of them waves her hand gently in front of a small glowing half-orb set into its side. Instantly, water starts to bubble up from the base and the tub is filled with hot water within moments.

Meanwhile, the two other women approach Aiobhee and attempt to start to undress her. She shrugs them off and grasps at her tunic, scowling at them both. "What do you think you're doing?" she demands roughly. They back off, timid and deferential.

The third woman – and Aiobhee can now see that she is significantly older than these two – stands up from the rim of the tub and comes over to her. "They are doing as ordered and preparing you."

"Preparing me?" Aiobhee asks incredulously, "For what?"

"The Commander."

Aiobhee's eyes suddenly widen with disbelief. "Are you trying to tell me what I think you are?"

The older woman's voice is dull and wearied as she replies, "There are worse fates on a wraith hive."

"I will not be some wraith's sex slave!" she declares angrily.

The two younger women cower further back, but the older woman merely shrugs and tells her, "Suit yourself. But I suggest you take the bath – then at least you'll be clean even if you do insist on dying."

Shocked speechless by the woman's pragmatic frankness, Aiobhee simply pulls her worn and shabby combat clothes off and steps gingerly into the tub. Within seconds the hot water swirling around her tired and aching limbs drives the fear to the back of her mind and she starts to relax. Perhaps the older woman is right; if she is to die tonight then she should take what little pleasure she can from this brief last respite.

After a few moments she's relaxed enough to allow the three women to wash her hair with scented herbs and rub fragrant oils into her battle-roughened skin. They towel dry her and brush her hair until its deep chestnut colour gleams in the subdued hive light.

Then the old woman brings out a bundle of clothing and shakes out the most exquisite fabric Aiobhee has ever seen – a softly shimmering gold silk, shot through with bronze and emerald. The contrast it makes with her hair and skin make her feel more feminine than she can ever remember feeling in her entire lifetime.

"Where did this come from?" she asks, but then swiftly answers her own question with, "Don't tell me… the Commander…"

The older woman smiles wryly as she finishes draping the dress across her hips and Aiobhee cannot dispel the nagging sensation of feeling like a sacrificial lamb about to be led into the lion's den.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

The Commander is not at all what Aiobhee expected. Oh, he's like any other wraith, at least in general appearance, but there's something about the detail of him that gives him a presence none of the others seem to have.

She's only ever seen either smooth haired or dreadlocked wraith before, but this one's hair seems to be somewhere in the middle, as if he'd just staggered out of bed and forgotten to brush it. Perhaps he's too busy to bother, she wonders, but then she notices the deliberate reef knot at the back of his head, two partial braids buried in the tousled strands, and a single earring in his left ear… so perhaps a little vainer than he might wish others to think.

His face marking seems to back up her theory. The other wraith she saw on the way to his quarters had either no tattoo at all, or small, intricately patterned ones. This wraith's tattoo is a simple but sweeping statement, a look-at-me starburst splashed boldly around his left eye – and yet, when she looks more closely she sees a few well-designed strokes of embellishment that suggested attention to detail.

He's noticeably taller than other wraith and carries his height with a bearing and charisma that give him a powerful presence: no one could ever not notice that he was in the room. He is every inch the imposing Commander, used to getting what he wants and when he wants it.

And yet… as Aiobhee stands looking up into his face, she sees a softness in those golden reptile eyes that takes her by surprise.

-oOo-

She is, quite simply, the most stunningly beautiful creature he has ever seen.

No small thing since he's lived for more than ten millennia and seen sights most humans could only dream of.

The gold shot-silk dress was a good choice, he thinks, as she walks past him to enter his rooms. Her rich chestnut hair sways in gentle waves down her back, shimmering bronze against the gold. His eyes sweep down the swathes of fabric draped over the curves of her hips, lithe but generous – the way he likes hips on any female, wraith or human – and with just enough of a sashay to be almost hypnotic to watch as she walks. He notices her spine is ramrod straight and he realises she's probably afraid.

He opens his mind and tunes into her emotional state… yes, there is fear, but something else much stronger resonates with a sweetness that makes him smile with delight: stubborn defiance. There is nothing he enjoys more than the challenge of a defiant human female.

He knows what she assumes herself to be here for and he also knows that she will try to make it as unpleasant and dutiful a task as she can muster. Like all defiant females he must play the game with her, wear her down, make her want him even though she thinks she shouldn't.

For a fraction of a second when her eyes meet his for the first time, he has the unsettling feeling that this one will not play the game by the rules. Far from irritating him, however, he finds the thought that she may be almost a match for him quite delicious.

Her golden brown eyes are at once confused and calculating when he hands her a book and simply says, "Read it to me."

-oOo-

She looks down at the book he's thrust into her hands: Shakespeare, whose work she just happens to love. The book is small and she realises it is a single work. Good grief – he's given her Romeo and Juliet! Probably the best story of star-crossed lovers ever to have been written and it's a wraith who is expectantly waiting for her to read it aloud to him!

She finds it hard to reconcile the irony of her situation, made all the more poignant by the fact that, in the last days before he was killed – killed by a wraith – her husband, Ben, had been trying to convince their band of freedom fighters to turn from killing wraith to working with them. He had become convinced that wraith have feelings, the same as any human. If they have feelings, he had said, then they can be reasoned with. He told them wraith kill humans because they have no choice and Ben had heard of technologies that might find a way to give wraith that choice, to lead both species out of the tyranny of constant killing.

And so she sits and reads romantic verse to this big, imposing wraith warrior and she sees in his face that he can appreciate the beauty of the poetry, even the romance of the words. Was Ben right – do wraith have feelings – can they love?

He finds her voice soothing in an almost musical way. Soon he starts to relax and it's not long before he closes his eyes. After some time she's convinced he's asleep.

Does she leave him or wake him? Does she stay or go? She decides to leave while she can, although where she can go dressed like this, she has no idea. She gets up silently, walking softly across the room. She reaches the door and, without even opening his eyes, he says quietly, "Did I give you permission to leave?"

-oOo-

His comment, although gently spoken, is delivered firmly and she's instantly smacked in the face by the realisation that she is now this wraith's slave, that from now on she can do nothing without his leave.

The thought rankles with her instinctively, but she knows that, if she is deliberately defiant she's putting her life at risk. She knows Ben would want her to stay alive if she can – and what about his dreams of finding a way towards peace with the wraith? She had supported him in that. Now that she must live on a hive, perhaps she should find a way to work toward his dreams from the inside.

Getting herself killed is not the way to honour Ben's memory. But, damn-it, how is she supposed to live like this – as this wraith's sex toy, or at best his little human pet?

Her pride gets the better of her, she squares up to the Commander and demands, "Whatever it is you want from me, just do it – pay me the respect of not toying with me!"

"Respect is precisely the reason why I am not toying with you," he says frankly.

"These oils and sweet herbs are expensive. Why would you have me doused in them for no reason?"

A wry smile plays teasingly around his mouth and he asks her, "Have you changed your mind? Do you want to play?"

She takes a sharp intake of breath and her eyes suddenly widen as his innuendo registers. "Absolutely not!"

"Are you certain you do not – how does your bard phrase it – protest too much?"

Aiobhee can do no more than stand there, open mouthed and gaping like a fish. Normally never one to be lost for a sharp retort, she cannot think of anything to say. She glares at him as her emotions roil in the pit of her stomach. He is smiling at her openly now, his head tilted to one side. Good, god, she thinks, he's flirting with me! How can a wraith be so audacious, so charismatic, so… so attractive.

She stands there, fighting a loosing battle with her own conflicting emotions as she realises she is both disgusted and thrilled at the thought of being with this wraith in that way.

Almost as if he knows he has won the first round, the Commander shrugs good naturedly and tells her, "I am in no hurry and want nothing from you that you cannot give willingly."

She tilts her chin and glares at him, the gold flecks in her hazel eyes flashing, "Never! Hell will freeze over first!"

He smiles at her indulgently, as if she were a willful child. "Ah, then you have never seen winter on the fire planet, Phoenix? Admittedly it happens only once every two hundred years, but we wraith are a patient race." He turns and heads off to the far end of the room.

His amused reaction to her tantrum has taken all of the wind out of her sails and she almost whimpers when she asks him, "What am I to do, then?"

"Do what you will," he tells her. "I can assure you that the bench is perfectly adequate for sleeping on. I will expect you to have cleaned my boots before morning, but otherwise you may sulk as long as you wish."

He turns to leave the room, but stops and looks at her over his own shoulder with a wolfish grin. "Oh, by the way," he says, "I know you humans place such importance on these things… what is your name?"

She narrows her eyes and glares at him. "Aiobhee," she replies through gritted teeth.

"Ee-vee?"

"Close enough," she snarls.

"You may call me Todd, although only ever in private."

With that he disappears through a door at the back of the room, leaving her standing there alone, seething with indignity, dizzy with confusion, and thinking that, somehow, she just got off very lightly indeed.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

They're lined up along the back wall of the cells, each wraith in his own individual cell – not just so they can't feed on each other but so that they can witness what is done to their brothers, knowing that it will be their turn next. But these wraith do not plead and beg and cry for their lives; they don't spill their guts and betray their kind for just one more minute of life, no matter how pitiful.

This is what makes the humans who torture them so spitefully frustrated: that they cannot break them.

She has defied Ben by coming here, but she must see for herself what they do in her name, what the men say they do to protect the women and children.

She should see a monster when she looks at the big, dreadlocked wraith, but she doesn't. She sees an intelligent creature, afraid but too proud to let it show. She sees someone helpless, locked up in a force-fielded cell where he cannot harm anyone – and yet the Major shoots him anyway, not once, not even twice, but three times.

The wraith hasn't even fallen to his knees but still there is pain in his face, fear in his eyes. He musters his pride in front of his brothers as they look on and the Major fires again… and again… and again…

No! Stop this! This is wrong!

All eyes turn to look at her – but it is not her they are looking at – she is seeing this through Ben's eyes.

They're unarmed, helpless prisoners! This is cold-blooded murder!

The Major and Ronon look at each other and laugh. Don't you know, Ben? The only good wraith is a dead wraith. Call it target practice.

The Major turns back in slow motion, empties his gun into the wounded wraith until he falls to the floor, unable to heal so many simultaneous wounds, and dies in a pool of his own blood.

No! Don't you see? This makes us worse than them!

Laughter fills the room, competing with the sound of gunfire as wraith after wraith are slaughtered, helpless, where they stand.

No! This is wrong! Stop! I'm sick of this killing!

-oOo-

Todd grasps Aiobhee's flailing hands as she lies, asleep but screaming, on the bench in his living quarters.

"No! Stop! This is so wrong! Stop the killing!"

He makes soft purring noises in the back of his throat and enfolds both of her small hands within one of his own, holding them to his chest, and with his other hand he strokes her soft hair, damp with sweat, from her brow.

"Stop! No! Please… stop…"

He cannot rouse her from this nightmare, cannot even reach her mind to soothe away this trauma seared deeply into her psyche like some kind of branding iron. He continues to croon and stroke and eventually, after several painfully slow minutes, she opens her eyes…

What Todd sees there makes him catch his breath. He senses her despair mingled with love and loss. There is also a deep sadness in her; a grief that weighs her down and has made her heart sick and his own heart squeezes sharply in sympathy for her pain.

"I will brook no argument," he tells her firmly but gently. "You will tell me what this nightmare is about."

-oOo-

"And so that is how my husband was killed by wraith. They knew he was one of the freedom fighters, simply a wraith-killer as far as they were concerned. But by the time they had captured him he had become sickened by all the killing…" Aiobhee draws in a deep breath and lets it out in a long, shuddering sigh. "He refused to fight, even for his own life…"

"It is little wonder then that you hate me."

Her sorrow-furrowed brow knits down into a frown. "Hate you? Why would I hate you?"

"Your husband was killed by wraith," Todd says, "It's no surprise that you-"

"Why would I hold you responsible for that?" Aiobhee interrupts. "You did not kill Ben."

"It was my kind who killed him."

"My own kind has committed countless atrocities, against both wraith and human, but I will not take the blame for what they do."

Todd smiles with genuine warmth at her bluntness. "Still," he says, "it must be difficult for you to live on a hive…"

"Life is difficult no matter where we live it," Aiobhee replies. "All any of us can do is survive as best we can."

Todd senses her heavy heart and feels a strange compulsion to comfort her. He lays his hand gently on her shoulder and says, "Some manage to do so with more integrity than others."

-oOo-

From that first night on their relationship trundles along in an almost companionable manner. They seem to understand each other, this wraith Commander and his human slave who refuses to be subservient to him. Todd likes her spark, her defiance, her forthrightness. He knows that, when he asks her to explain something, she will tell him the truth as she knows it. He also knows that this is not common among humans and appreciates her honesty with him, even if it does mean she is disrespectful at times. He sees in her a bravery that would put many wraith of his acquaintance to shame.

So it is with surprise one night when he comes back to his quarters to find her crying. Within mere seconds of him stepping into the room, she composes herself, but it is clear from her red-rimmed eyes that she has been weeping for some time.

"I'm sorry," Aiobhee says immediately.

Todd senses the emotions that have caused her tears and simply replies, "There is nothing to apologise for."

"I know that wraith abhor weakness. I need just a moment to compose myself."

"It is not weakness to remember dead loved ones, but rather an act of respect. Memories can be powerful," he says with a depth of understanding that surprises Aiobhee. She looks up at him and questions him with her eyes.

"You know wraith to feel anger, pride, aggression – what makes you think that we do not also feel love, sadness, compassion?" Aiobhee simply raises one eyebrow. "Ah," Todd goes on. "Just because you do not see it does not mean we do not feel it."

"I thought wraith see emotions like compassion as weakness."

"They can be," Todd replies. "After all, was it not compassion that got your husband killed?" He sees Aiobhee's gaze flick downward and bizarrely wonders what the butterfly sweep of her long, dark eyelashes would feel like against his cheek. "I feel the same emotions you do," he qualifies. "And, like your emotions, all of mine are a double-edged sword. Pride can be a wraith's undoing every bit as much as love can."

"You feel love?" she asks, not even trying to hide her curiosity.

"I have done," Todd tells her honestly.

"Do you… do you have memories of someone special?"

"Many memories, in fact – I have lived a very long time," he reminds her, "Far too long to have loved only once."

"I didn't think there were that many queens…"

Todd laughs softly and says, "I'm not talking about wraith queens."

"But… you can't possibly mean…?"

Todd sighs heavily. "Wraith and human are not always simply predator and prey, nor even master and slave. By the very fact that we are both sentient beings, relationships between us can become… complicated."


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

Todd wrestles with himself inside his head as he walks the corridors of his hive. He has been here before, and it is never easy when a wraith develops affection for a human. It is so easy for it to end badly that most wraith simply never allow it to happen. But Todd was never one to shy from a challenging situation, especially not if he could learn something from the encounter. Yet, somehow he feels there is more to this… this Ee-vee.

What he sees in her mind is not mere stubbornness or defiance – she has integrity, powerful emotions and hidden depths worth exploring. They could learn so much from each other, even inspire each other to grow and become better beings for the knowing of each other.

Todd can feel it in his bones that he could bond with this one, that he might one day even wish to give her his life force just to keep her companionship a while longer.

He knows that playing games will only push her away, so he resolves to try to find out what she needs. As luck – or perhaps destiny – would have it, he's about to be able to do just that – and far sooner than he ever expected…

-oOo-

As has become their late evening habit, Aiobhee is sitting on the floor, leaning against Todd's knee, reading aloud to him from a book of Keat's poetry. As usual her soft, melodic voice drifts through his mind, easing the stresses of his day. But tonight he hears a new inflection in her reading, something that tugs at the edges of his consciousness, seeking attention and yet at the same time, trying to evade his notice.

"Darkling I listen; and for many a time

I have been half in love with easeful Death,

Called him soft names in many a mused rhyme,

To take into the air my quiet breath;

Now more than ever seems it rich to die,

To cease upon the midnight with no pain."

Suddenly he sits up straight and places his hand on her shoulder. The melancholy he can now identify in her voice as she reads sets his teeth on edge. He puts his hand on her shoulder and asks her sadly, "Is your grief so great that you wish to die?"

To his surprise, she places her hand over his on her shoulder and tells him, "My loss is as keen as ever." She twists her head around to look up at him, her deep brown eyes soft and glistening in the flickering candlelight. "But I don't want to die any more."

He suddenly has an overwhelming and reckless desire for her and he lets his hand slip from her shoulder to the nape of her neck, entwining his fingers gently in the tendrils of hair there.

"Would it be unfaithful to our loved ones' memories if we were to find comfort in each other?" His voice is soft and husky.

In reply she simply stands up, takes his hand and wordlessly leads him to his sleep chamber.

-oOo-

Aiobhee lights several candles on a shelf running the length of his bed and turns to face him, the window behind her. Against the backdrop of stars she looks more beautiful than anything Todd remembers in more than ten thousand years.

He also can't remember ever feeling this nervous. He has mated with several females, including queens, and believes he knows how to illicit the correct responses. But that's just the thing, he tells himself; he's well enough versed in the physical process, but has never before felt the need to cosset a woman's mind as well has her body. He doesn't just want to mate with this woman; he wants to make her love him.

Aiobhee has already struggled with this for some time. She couldn't reconcile all her years of fighting wraith with her desire for this wraith standing in front of her now. She couldn't see how her love for Ben could sit side-by-side with her growing feelings for this creature. But the more time she has spent with Todd, the more she sees the gentle philosopher beneath the arrogant Commander.

She knows, deep in her bones, that if Todd and Ben had ever met as equals, they would have liked each other, respected each other. For that reason alone, she decides she need not make the situation she finds herself in any harder than it has to be and had made up her mind to be with him.

While Todd approaches her with nervousness caution, she approaches him with gentle curiosity. They undress each other slowly, almost reverently.

He's not as different as she had expected him to be… no nipples, boney protrusions down his spine, his member subtly different, but basically he's just a man. She wonders if she is very different from their wraith females, but he seems to know his way around her body – although she is delighted that he is clearly in no hurry and savours his touch as much as he seems to do hers.

He holds her and strokes her hair and covers her neck and shoulders in kisses, runs his warm hands over her body in whispering caresses, and murmurs softly in her ear. She briefly wonders if he really means the words he speaks about her beauty and how it affects him, but his touch confirms the truth of them.

She can tell that, knowing his own strength, he is holding back. His caresses are careful, thoughtful. Aiobhee has never known such tenderness – not even with, Ben, whom she loved with all her heart and soul.

This wraith's gentle near-veneration of her body moves her to tears and she hides those tears in his hair. She wraps her arms and legs around his hard-muscled body and she clings to him as her climax swells in her groin before it explodes out into her stomach and settles, warm and contented, in her heart.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

Todd is fully aware of how fragile and transient human life is; another reason why most wraith prefer not to become too attached to any one of them. But he also knows that it is this very thing that makes it worth the effort. The briefness of their lives makes everything so urgent for them; they live and love with such passion. He has had several human female companions over the millennia and has grieved for them all in his own way.

But he has a feeling that his grief over this one, when it comes, will be almost overwhelming for a while until he settles back into that familiar numbness that precedes his return to normal wraith life after losing a worshipper.

But he did not expect it to come so soon…

There are always minor skirmishes here and there on any hive; humans may be ineffectual, but they are persistent, like wasps around a honey jar, constantly looking for the way in.

Usually these little confrontations have little or no effect upon the worshippers who live in the hives, they being moved to safer areas by junior officers while the drones protect the hive.

But Aiobhee, being Aiobhee and not your average biddable worshipper, was in the line of fire. When Todd was informed that she'd been taken, injured, to his quarters, he had expected a minor flesh wound.

By the time he gets there, he realises he should have come sooner and is shocked to see her close to death from a close-range gun shot wound. But what shocks him even more is his own reaction to her peril. Suddenly his entire autonomic nervous system goes into overdrive, adrenaline pumping as it would just before a big battle, his heart hammering loudly in his chest. He doesn't know why his body should react in this way until he hears his own voice in his head, strident and determined: I will not lose her; not so soon!

He spins round and glowers at the two officers who brought her here. "Leave us!" he snaps and they instantly turn on their heels and leave his rooms. The second the door hisses shut he falls to his knees beside the bench where she lies and lifts her head close to his.

Tears prick behind his eyes, the sensation unfamiliar to him, and he tentatively touches the patch of thick, dark blood slowly spreading across her torn abdomen. He must heal her, but he is uncertain how she will feel about that.

She shudders briefly in his arms and he makes his decision. He is not ready to give her up; he will heal her and what she does not know will do her no harm. He will simply let her believe that the wound was minor and she recovered naturally.

Gently he places his feeding hand upon her chest and pours his own being into her. "Stay with me," he whispers, watching as her mangled flesh beneath the bloodstain knits itself whole again before his eyes.

-oOo-

Todd knows she suspects that he had aided her recovery though she has said nothing about it. He can sense that she is clearly agitated about something but he cannot quite fathom the reason for her nervous behaviour. He would have preferred to have had more time before giving her the Gift; time to bind her emotions to him more tightly; time to free her mind from the repulsion that many of her own kind had died so that he would have the wherewithal to give her life.

But he did not have the luxury of time, so instead he tries to give her the space she needs to come to terms with it. He doesn't realise that his distance has caused doubt to creep insidiously into her heart.

Until, that is, the day he is informed that the human who calls himself Ronon, along with a handful of the group who had attacked the hive and who had been taken prisoner, have escaped.

That is barely irksome to him, but what causes him concern is that Aiobhee is brought to him under drone guard, accused of being the one who aided them. He asks her directly because he knows she'll tell him the truth – and she admits that she helped them to escape.

Todd feels suddenly and inexplicably bereft.

He vividly recalls a day, long ago when he was young, when an ill-tempered wraith queen had him by the throat, her feeding hand just barely clamped to his chest before fate had intervened with circumstances that distracted her long enough for him to make his escape. He had struggled then to conceal his rising panic at the thought of his life coming to an abrupt end in that way. Just as now he is struggling with the panic clawing at his guts as he fights his own conflicting needs.

On the one hand he feels the need to keep this human alive, to protect her; on the other hand there is his need to stay alive himself, to stay in command of his hive, to assuage any unrest that might burgeon into mutiny.

"I cannot turn a blind eye to this – it is far too serious a matter, Ee-vee." He almost pleads with her to try to understand his position, but his wraith pride won't let him confide in her his fears for both her and his own safety. "There are already those among my crew who believe I have unhealthy and inappropriate feelings for you."

If he does not nip this in the bud there are a few who may turn on him. She would be killed anyway, and if he is also killed then there really would be no hope for her.

But her only comment is, "Do you?"

He ignores the remark, even though it is a question he has asked himself often in the last few weeks.

"You leave me no choice," he tells her and she can hear the heaviness of his heart in his voice.

-oOo-

She knows Todd is angry with her – not least because he has put her in a holding cell rather than under guard in his quarters. She supposes he has his reasons and even concedes that she may feel likewise were their situations reversed. But it's not until later that day that she realises just how deeply in trouble she has gotten herself.

A young officer with a look of ruthless ambition about him comes for her. He hisses in her face and indicates with a condescending jerk of his head that she should follow him. Flanked on both sides and behind by drone guards, she follows the skinny wraith through the endless corridors.

She's lead to a big meeting chamber that opens out like a huge cavernous maw and she's startled to see a significant number of wraith officers assembled there, with Todd standing on a wide platform at the far end. She does not like the fact that his face is set sternly across the tops of the heads of the assembled crew and that he deliberately does not look at her when she enters.

When the junior officer who led her here steps aside, leering at her as he does, and the drone behind her prods her hard in the back with his weapon to push her forward, she suddenly realises that this is a public execution – and she is the one to be executed!

-oOo-

Her heart is hammering so hard she's amazed they can't see it trying to burst from her chest. Her mouth has dried up so much she doesn't think she could physically speak even if she could think of something to say that might save her life. She twists her hands together tightly in front of herself so that these wraith will not see how uncontrollably her fingers are trembling.

Alone with Todd she might be able to argue her case, reason with him, change his mind from this course of action. But, too late, she comprehends what Todd had tried to tell her; that for wraith, appearances are important and he must be seen to deal with her harshly. She has given him no option but to make an example of her.

Todd refuses to make eye contact with her, even as he moves toward her with his right hand raised. She will not beg for her life; she will show him that humans can have as much pride and dignity as any wraith. But, oh, how she wishes he would look at her! While he refuses to meet her eyes she must die thinking he sees her as nothing but a weak-willed human, and that all that has passed between them means nothing to him.

As soon as the thought comes into her mind, Todd's head snaps round the tiniest fraction of an inch and their eyes meet. He flexes his feeding hand as if he it were a separate entity that he is struggling to control. The last thing she sees is the silent roar of grief in Todd's golden eyes as he sets his will hard as stone against his heart so that he can do this thing he has to do.

He slams his hand into her sternum and feeds on her until she falls dead at his feet.

Without looking up, Todd snarls at his assembled crew and they all file out wordlessly. Two drones approach Aiobhee's body, but before they can even stoop to pick her up, Todd growls, "I said, dismissed!"


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

The second Todd is certain that there is no one else in the room, he slides a tiny control stick down from inside his coat sleeve and presses the single button on it. A small panel in the wall slides aside. He leans over Aiobhee's body and picks her up, slipping silently through the panel with her in his arms. It slides closed behind him, leaving no indication that it was ever there.

By all appearances Aiobhee is dead, but she's not. As he carries her Todd is aware that her skin is not cooling as it would do if she were dead. He can barely hear the agonizingly faint beat of her heart as he hurries through the dark of the hidden tunnel to his private room in his quarters. By necessity he had to take her to the brink, make it look as though she were dead. He knows her life is hanging by the thinnest of threads and he prays that he can get there in time.

The second the panel to his bedroom slides aside, he throws himself through it, hurrying to place Aiobhee on his bed. There he lays his right hand on her chest, in the same place he had done so mere minutes earlier. But this time he gives back all he took.

-oOo-

"They think you dead – you cannot be seen," Todd tells her starkly. "It was the best I could do."

Aiobhee understands that this is the closest thing to regret she is ever going to hear from him, but it doesn't make her situation any less tenable as far as she's concerned.

"We must find a planet where you will be safe and can settle," Todd continues.

"And then what?" she asks him, leaving her real question hanging in the air between them.

"Perhaps I can visit you there now and then? I often go off on my own, it would not arouse suspicion."

"And that's it, then?" Aiobhee hurls at him. "I live in hiding with nothing to look forward to other than your visit, what, every other year, once a decade? Do I have any choice where I will hide out for the rest of my life?" she challenges him.

Put like that, Todd understands why she's not grateful to him to still be alive. "If there is somewhere you have in mind I will check it out to make sure it is safe from too much wraith activity," Todd replies despondently.

"I'll let you know," Aiobhee snaps back. She sees Todd scowl at her insolence and snaps her head round to face him. "What? What will you do to me? Kill me? Again?"

Todd turns on his heel and leaves the room without a word.

Aiobhee doesn't know that it's not her he's angry with but himself. In his need to hold on to her as well as his own power, he had not stopped to think about how his actions would restrict her freedom or affect the quality of the life he gave back to her.

-oOo-

Aiobhee looks at the communications device in her hand as if it might rear up and bite her. Ronon had given it to her when she had helped him escape the hive. He had tried to persuade her to leave with him, but she had refused, thinking she could get closer to Todd, work for Ben's dreams from within the wraith. But was that the only reason she had wanted to stay, or did she have other reasons for wishing to get close to Todd?

But all that has changed now. That was before he fed on her to almost the last drop; before he put her in the position of being at worst a fugitive, at best a recluse, for the rest of her life. How does she feel about him now?

On the one hand he did bring her back and he seems to want to protect her in his own peculiar wraith way. But to her mind he's treating her with cavalier casualness, as if she were a possession, not a human being… but then, she reminds herself, that's how wraith view human beings, isn't it?

Even though Todd can behave like a pussycat at times, she has often felt as if she has a tiger by the tail. Holding on to it is tiring her out but she's too afraid to let go in case he turns on her. After all, he has shown himself capable of it, even if he did undo it.

She sighs and throws her head back. Oh, god, I'm so confused!

She looks down at the communicator nestling in the palm of her hand and takes a deep breath. Before she has time to change her mind, she presses send.

-oOo-

"He did what?" Ronon roars. Even over the tiny speaker of the device, Aiobhee shushes him, afraid of being overheard.

"He undid it, he brought me back," she goes on defensively. "But now I have to go into hiding. He says I can go to a planet of my own choosing… if he approves it that is…"

"So even after death you have to follow his orders," Ronon snaps.

"Well, I'm not quite dead, actually" Aiobhee snaps back. She feels oddly defensive of the wraith Commander whose orders she must still obey but she can see where Ronon is coming from.

"He's a wraith; you can't trust any of them."

"But Ronon, he changed his mind, he brought me back."

"Why? So he could stash you away on a quiet planet somewhere as his little plaything?"

Aiobhee feels as if an invisible hand has gripped her heart. Is that really all she is to him?

"He's a wraith," Ronon pushes as if answering her unspoken question. "He felt the need to carry out the charade of your public execution to keep his officers happy. You're disposable, you can't trust him. If he changed his mind once he can do it again. He could turn on you for real at any moment."

Torn, Aiobhee squeezes her eyes shut and a single tear escapes the corner of one eye. "Alright," she says at last, "I'll do it."

She sighs heavily as she hides the communicator in her dress again. She has just agreed to tell Todd that she knows of somewhere where she can hide out. As arranged with Ronon, she'll take Todd to check it out – knowing she'll be leading him into an ambush.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

She watches them through the internal window of the energy drive tube running vertically through the abandoned space ship wreckage where they keep him prisoner. Every single one of the four days since she brought Todd to them, she has regretted her actions, struggling to come to terms with what she's done.

Like an idle tongue worrying at a painful tooth, her mind wanders back to that day when she turned him in, when Todd's face first registered her betrayal of him. That look had wrung her heart until she felt she could no longer breathe.

"What is this?" Todd had asked her, turning his head to look at her almost in slow motion, as if he could not quite believe she had done this. The look on his face as his eyes met hers had ripped her heart wide open. He had looked deep into her soul and quietly told her, "You could have let go of the tiger's tail; I did not turn on you and I never would."

It was then that it had struck her like a hammer blow to the chest: she had misunderstood him and his motives. Now she sees that he had planned to bring her back all along. He had deliberately taken her just to the brink and no more, fully intending to give her life back to her. And by making a public show of it, he was in fact protecting her from the rest of his crew, some of whom no doubt would have killed her anyway if he had not appeared to do so.

Ronon and his crew's torture of Todd is heart-rending, what little she can bear to watch of it without betraying her true feelings to them. They have him strung up half naked on a T-shaped cross bar, crucified and suspended over the yawning pit of the engine drive tube. He tries to hold his head up, to look them in the eye when they shoot him repeatedly, leaving just enough time for his body to heal itself before shooting him again. Wraith may heal almost instantly, but they feel pain the same as any human.

One or two of the most sadistic of the group have discovered that if they use arrows instead of bullets, he heals around the shaft and it causes him more pain.

Seeing how Todd bears this with such pride, she understands now that she's made a terrible mistake. Not just because of how she feels about him, but also because she truly believes that he is the only hope for wraith to move on and even show humans how they can be more than they are. Todd is the only person she knows who has any hope of giving life to Ben's dreams of peace between the two races.

She makes her decision. She must undo the damage she has done.

-oOo-

Tears sting viciously at Aiobhee's eyes as she stands on the platform in front of Todd. He doesn't know anyone is there and has let his head fall forward, his shoulders cruelly twisted from the weight of his body, slumped forward from exhaustion and pain.

His legs hang limp, the leather of his trousers streaked with blood dried around the bullet holes in them. His abdomen is tight, the muscles rigid as if he were trying to use them to hold back the pain.

His broad rib cage is pulled taut so that, instead of the deep and slow breathing Aiobhee used to watch in the middle of the night, his chest now heaves rapidly with shallow, snatched breaths.

The muscles in his arms and shoulders are bunched hard as they strain to take the full weight of his own body. Several arrow shafts jut from his torso, dried rivulets of blood streaking his green skin, slick and shiny with sweat, and criss-cross his many warrior tattoos. She remembers in agonizingly vivid detail how she had so lovingly kissed every single one of those markings.

Impatiently, she dashes away a tear that escapes to roll, heavy and despondently, down her cheek. She has a job to do.

Just then she's startled by one of the group coming into the chamber and challenging her. "What are you doing here?"

Fear makes her mind agile and, without hesitation, she replies, "Looking for you, actually. Ronon wants to see you about the recon detail for tomorrow."

"He doesn't need me for that," the young man says suspiciously, looking between her and the apparently unconscious wraith.

"Suit yourself," Aiobhee bluffs, "But I wouldn't like to be you when he discovers you've ignored his orders."

"I'm not allowed to leave you alone with… with that," he points his gun disparagingly at Todd. "Direct orders."

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" Aiobhee scowls impatiently and snatches the young soldier's gun from his hands, flings the muzzle out toward Todd and lets off one round into his lower leg. "See? After what I've been through, do you really think I don't hate them every bit as much as you do?"

As soon as the bullet hits his leg, Todd throws his head back and growls. The sound he makes is filled with such despair that it almost breaks her heart. But even worse is the knowledge that his despair is borne of his belief that she has betrayed him – that digs deep into her belly like the cruel, curved blade of a hunting knife and twists until she fears she cannot bear it.

But Aiobhee is also aware that his roar no longer has the power behind it that she has heard from him before; he's weak and she prays she's not too late.

The young man hesitates and she holds her breath. _Please don't make me shoot him again, you stupid little boy_, she thinks.

After a few seconds that feel like hours, the soldier shrugs and heads off to follow the orders that were never given, amazingly leaving Aiobhee holding his rifle.

The instant the door closes she swings into action, pointing the rifle directly at Todd. He lifts his head and looks at her with such pain and longing that it actually makes her gasp and stumble one step forward. The thought that he believes she hates him turns her soul inside out.

"Turn your head to the right!" She barks the words out like an order in her attempt to contain her emotions.

As if he believes she is about to deliver the killing blow, and with a look of being utterly resigned to that fate, Todd simply turns his head slowly and heavily to the side.

She fires two rounds into the ropes on the cross bar and Todd's body jerks forward and swings around to the left. She gasps as she sees the muscles in his shoulder shudder and spasm at the suddenly increased strain. She swears she can hear them threatening to tear and knows she must act quickly.

"Now the left!" she shouts. Todd twists his head sharply to the other side, the flash in his eyes showing that he comprehends what she's doing.

Aiobhee fires again, once, twice, freeing his left arm and then sending him crashing down to the bottom of the tunnel. She throws herself in after him.


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

Todd almost loses consciousness at the bottom of the pit and rolls over onto his back just in time to see Aiobhee land heavily at his side and then throw herself over him to shield him from the brunt of the falling debris.

"What…?" he murmurs weakly.

"I had to make him think I'm still one of them so he'd leave," Aiobhee tells him, her face twisted with a combination of loathing for herself and concern for him. "I have to get you out of here – I have to put right the wrong that I've done."

A few of the arrow shafts still protrude from his body and she takes her courage in both hands and deftly snaps them off as close to his body as she can, causing fresh blood to ooze around them and Todd to snarl quietly and grit his teeth together.

She helps him to his feet and supports as much of his weight as she can while she bundles him toward a service shaft in the side of the tunnel. "This way," she tells him.

She can hear the commotion in the engine drive cavity they've left behind and knows that although they won't know which service shaft they're in it's only a matter of time before they catch up with them. She must hurry to get Todd clear of the camp.

She half drags him along the service tunnel, aware that he is letting her lead the way, looking instead at her, scrutinising her face as they stumble ahead as fast as his injuries will let them.

Still guilt-ridden, she cannot look at him and he says nothing. But they both know now that they will do whatever they can to keep each other alive – but if it comes to it, they will die together.

-oOo-

"You have to get these arrow shafts and bullets out or they will travel through my body before they come out the other side. I will heal instantly as they do, but their passage will cause great pain."

"Shrapnel," Aiobhee says. "It happens to us too." She frowns and adds, "But you've healed around them; I'll have to dig them out."

"That is why I cannot do it myself," Todd answers plainly.

Her brows crease up with sorrow as she reaches out and touches his face. "I need you to forgive me for what I've done to you. If it were not for me you would be-"

Todd interrupts, taking her face in both of his hands. "If it were not for you, I would never have known these feelings and I will not speak of our relationship never having happened." He winces as his movement jars one of the arrow shafts protruding from between his ribs. "But first, I must ask you to do this…"

Aiobhee takes a deep breath and lets it out in a long sigh. "I can't," she says, her own distress welling up from deep inside her. "I've already hurt you too much."

"I can bear it, knowing that you are with me again," Todd tells her softly. He runs his fingertips across her cheek and tucks several loose strands of her hair behind her ear. "It must be done. Be brave for just a little longer, my love."

His calling her "my love" gives her the strength she needs and, gritting her teeth in resignation, Aiobhee takes her blade from inside her jacket and holds it in the flames of their camp fire until it's almost red-hot. As she works on Todd and watches him set his face against the pain, she does not even attempt to hold back her tears. She lets them flow freely down her face, falling from her nose and chin and cheeks. The tears she cries for him fall on his body like soft, warm spring rain, mingling with his blood and washing it off into the dirt he lies on.

-oOo-

After the job is done she holds him close until his breathing steadies. But just as she thinks he's asleep his deep voice murmurs against her shoulder, "I thought you refused to take the blame for what your people do?"

She twists her head to look him in the eye, shamefaced and rebellious all at the same time. "This time the wrong was my doing and I will put it right. I want to find a better way for both our peoples."

Todd smiles wistfully at her. "We are much alike are we not, we two?"

Aiobhee reaches across and gently traces the star tattoo around his left eye with her fingertips. "Much more than both our peoples could ever imagine," she says.

He leans heavily into her and she can hear his voice is weak when he whispers, "I forgive you… Ee-vee…"

He can sense a deep tide of emotion sweep through her mind at that very moment, but then she pushes it down and changes tack.

"I did a terrible wrong by turning you in to them; I thought they were the good guys, but they're not. I guess there aren't many good guys left any more and I got confused."

"You do not need to explain to me…" he tells her softly. "I know what is in your heart."

"I know one thing for sure now," she continues. "You're one of the good guys."

"I'm not a good guy…" Todd says, his voice trailing off weakly.

His head falls to the side, resting on her shoulder and she wonders if he's fallen asleep again.

Aiobhee turns her head, presses her face into his hair and whispers to him, "You are. You just don't know it yet."


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

Todd anxiously shakes Aiobhee awake. "I can hear the humans' vehicles approaching," he tells her. "We must go now."

He tells her there is an open area on the other side of the river where he can signal his crew to rescue them.

"I thought I had to stay hidden from them?"

"Circumstances are a little different now," he says. "You helped me to escape and we have the location of the freedom fighters' HQ."

"And how will you explain my coming back from the dead?"

"Oh, I'll think of something," Todd actually smirks back at her. "But first…" he takes her by the elbow and points the way ahead. "This way – we must hurry."

Aiobhee runs as fast as she can without let up until she fears her lungs might explode. The ancient LandRovers are steadily catching up with them, their passengers firing constantly, a hail of bullets raining down all around them. Now and then a rocket-launcher lets loose, sending great fountains of earth spewing up into the air, getting into their eyes as they weave in and out, defying the odds. Small craters and fires open up all around them but still they keep running.

Suddenly, Aiobhee cries out and stumbles. Todd doesn't even break his stride as he scoops her up and runs for cover toward the edge of the tree-line ten yards away.

He puts her down to lean against a broad tree-trunk and points a short distance through the trees. "I can see it from here, not far now. We can make it." He sees the blood oozing from her side and gasps. "I must heal you before we go any further," he adds, reaching for her.

She pushes him aside more sharply than she intended. "No! You're too weak," she explains. "Besides, it's only a flesh wound, the bullet went straight through and it's clean."

"I'm fully recovered," he tells her. "You don't want me to heal you because you think others of your kind have died so that I may do so?"

She looks down at her own feet awkwardly. Todd lifts his right hand to her face and his feeding slit tingles slightly against her cheek, like a tiny frisson of static electricity.

"One day humans will share life force with wraith without dying," he says wistfully. "We will be able to mutually nurture each other. I truly believe this."

"Tell me something," she ventures. "When you brought me back, did you just give back what you took from me, or…?"

"It's not quite that straightforward, not merely a simple energy equation. I still have your life force in me and you have mine in you. We are bonded."

Aiobhee smiles. She finally confesses to herself that she likes that idea. Todd smiles back at her. "Me too," he says.

"What? Did you…?"

"I told you we are bonded now," he tells her softly. "But we must move on – there is a river ravine just up ahead. Their vehicles cannot cross it. If we can get to the other side we will gain an advantage that will give us time to escape to where we can be picked up."

-oOo-

"Can you make the jump?" he asks her anxiously. "I will carry you."

Aiobhee looks back at the rapidly gaining soldiers and realises her only concern is to get him away from them and their bitter hatred of all wraith. "Of course I can make it," she tells him, fear giving her voice the proud edge she needs to convince him. "You go first."

She watches as he turns and runs full pelt toward the ravine, his body now fully healed. His torso twists at the waist from one side to the other as his long and powerful legs propel him forward. The sinewy muscles of his back glistening in the firelight and she can just make out the ridge of spines that run down the centre of his back. She takes a deep breath, remembering what those spines feel like under her fingertips.

Suddenly he's air-borne, his long silver hair flying behind him, then an abrupt jar running up his leg muscles as he lands on solid ground at the other side. She thinks she has never seen any creature so beautiful as this wraith and drinks in the sight, for she knows it's the last she'll ever see of him as Ronon's lackeys close in behind her.

She sees Todd almost as if in slow motion as he turns, his hair swinging around his shoulders, expecting to see her following behind him; sees the look of anguish on his face when he sees her still standing there; watches him growl and snarl as the soldiers grab her from behind and twist her arms behind her back.

"No!" she hears him howl in anguish, making ready to leap back across the ravine to save her.

She knows he's heard her in his mind, for he stops abruptly in his tracks. He stands and looks at her, lit by the glow of dozens of small battle fires around her, his golden eyes glistening in that firelight.

He understands what she had intended all along, and knows that she's right. The way things are between their races they can never be together the way they would want. Not yet.

He fights the overwhelming desire to rescue her, knowing it would mean certain death for them both. They have work to do and he will not let her down.

He sees her mouth the words, "I love you."

He touches her mind with his; a lover's touch, filled with all the passion and grief of a moment they know may be their last.

Before he turns and runs, disappearing into the night, she sees his golden eyes sparkle and his lips move briefly. Somehow, across the space of the ravine that divides them, she hears his beloved voice tell her softly, "I love you."


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

"What the hell were you thinking? You brought him to us, why did you help him escape?" Ronon is incandescent with rage and is barely holding himself back from hitting her.

She sits awkwardly in the small wooden chair, her hands bound behind her back. "I was confused…"

"He confused you, I understand that – you should've come and spoken to me, Aiobhee."

"No, you don't understand," she says wearily. She pulls her head upright and looks him in the eye. Ronon winces at the sight of the deep purple bruise swelling her left eye shut, leaving her glaring at him with her right eye. "You confused me, not him."

Ronon swings his arms out in an exasperated gesture as he turns from her, but she persists. "When you looked at him what did you see?" she asks him. Her voice is world-weary but there's something strong still in there, deep inside her.

"He's a wraith! What the hell did you see?" he demands angrily.

"I saw someone just like you, proud and strong, who's just trying to survive; a leader who wants to do what he thinks is right for his people. He's our only hope for the future, Ronon."

"We have no future so long as one wraith survives – and he's no different from them all."

"Yes, he is, he wants the status quo to change, and he's powerful enough to lead his people into a better way for all of us. But he needs us to meet him halfway."

"Wraith are not people; they're monsters and I don't deal with monsters," Ronon says, entrenched.

Suddenly, something in Aiobhee flares brightly, making the bruises on her face stand out lividly as she strains against the chair to lean forward. "What was he to you when he was hanging on that cross, riddled with bullets and arrows? Oh, yes, there were monsters in that room then, but he wasn't one of them!"

Ronon holds her gaze for several minutes in silence. "Good God… I don't believe it. You actually love that thing."

"I never saw a monster, Ronon… only a man."

Ronon screws his face up in disgust. "I'm only glad Ben isn't here to hear you say that!" He stomps out of the room, barking to the guards, "Let her go." The guards look at him puzzled and he adds, "She's dead meat anyway when the villagers discover she's a wraith worshipper."

He slams the door shut and doesn't hear Aiobhee as she hangs her head forward and whispers, "It's not me Ben would be ashamed of."

-oOo-

She doesn't know how she managed to survive the last six months. She spent most of it on the road, hiding during the day in caves and groves; pilfering from village stores at night. Too afraid to approach any humans she came across, she almost missed this group. But as she grew weaker, she found it harder and harder to stay hidden and eventually she was discovered, many hundreds of miles from where she used to consider home.

This small community took her in, fed her until her strength returned. At first they were as reticent as she was to declare their sympathy with wraith until one day she saw their elders talking with a small party of wraith officers. Even as an outsider it was clear to her that they were negotiating openly with each other, unhindered by fear or aggression.

She began to tell her story and the community elders realised she may be pivotal to their cause. They confided that they are making head-roads into collaborations between human and wraith factions who are trying to work together to find a means to co-exist.

They agreed to allow her to meet with their own scientists and their wraith cohorts and she learned that the rumours are not just rumours; this brave community may be closer to the solution than any dared hope.

Finally, she tells them about Todd and the wraith agree to try to find him, knowing that they need as many powerful and influential wraith on their side as they can muster.

Aiobhee dares to feel real hope and settles in this community with a deep sense of belonging she has never felt before.

-oOo-

"Wraith are not all bad. They have feelings the same as we do. They are no more evil than you or I; they are simply trying to survive and many of them understand the need for change. We must lead by example, change our own ways, and help them to change, too."

Aiobhee looks up from the camp fire, across the tops of the heads of the young people gathered around her. They're new to their rapidly growing little community, but she sees the spark of tolerance in their eyes, fuelling her hope that some day wraith and human truly will find a way to co-exist.

She watches their expectant faces, all waiting for her next words. She tells them, "I know in my heart all wraith are capable of love – some of them already do love – and that makes them worth saving."

She looks down at her own hand as she protectively rubs it across her swollen belly, mere weeks now before the birth is due. Already she loves this child with a fierceness she never knew was possible. If she has to, she will kill or even die to protect him: her baby, their child, Todd's son.

This child, conceived in a moment of such tenderness between wraith and human that she knows, deep in her soul, that he will be the future for both their peoples. This child who will make her dearest Ben's dream a reality. This child, who, she dares to hope, may one day reunite her with her beloved Todd.


End file.
